Women’s health and career growth have been a topic of conversation for good reason. The lack of representation in certain fields, the pay disparities between men and women. It is no question that many high achieving women would feel imposter syndrome and struggle with a work-life balance. Arcadia High School’s (AHS) Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) held a Women’s  Panel on Mar. 13 with three high achieving individuals–Fanny Bisharat, Jeanine Hauk, and Kathleen Walker–to give advice to the future generation of workers and explain how they overcome diversity in the workforce.

Bisharat is the Principal Counsel of Privacy and Cybersecurity at Walt Disney. In the beginning of the panel, Bisharat discussed how she decided the direction she wanted to take her career. She described how she initially wanted to become a detective because she loved reading detective novels. Going into law school, she knew that she wanted to become a transactional attorney after doing an internship with a company in cybersecurity. 

“Cybersecurity is kind of like being a detective, so it’s a lot of problem solving and allows me to try to find where the issue is and help and work with teams all the time,” Bisharat stated

Hauk, who is a tattoo artist with Strangelove, knew that she wanted to go into the art field from a very young age. “My first memory was of me drawing; I was like that girl in high school who drew an eye a million times in her notebooks,” stated Hauk. 

Hauk went on to further describe how she got interested in the art of tattooing. 

“Whenever I would go to art shows, people would say how the imagery would look really cool as a tattoo; so, I was getting heavily tattooed at the same time and always loved going to the shop and getting tattooed,” she said. “After working a few years in the corporate world, I realized that it wasn’t for me, and I began looking for a [tattoo] apprenticeship and eventually got one. That took about two years, and now I am given the freedom to make my own schedule, and am given the freedom to do [almost] whatever I want with my creativity.” 

As a medical malpractice lawyer, Walker practices law at Lewis Brisbois, one of the biggest law firms in Los Angeles. She defends hospitals and the physicians who work there. Even though it was not her original plan, Walker went on to law school, which gave her the academic challenge that allowed her to eventually work closely with the people in the medical field. 

“I like to argue; I like to strategize, and a lot of what I do is very strategic and often times, my clients will say ‘you took advantage of that other person or if they had you, they would’ve won,’ and so the justice system is not fair in the way that all of the advocates are equal. So, I try to give my clients a leg up by being the best strategist I can,” said Walker. 

Throughout the course of the panel, a couple of the women described the feeling of having imposter syndrome. 

Bisharat described how, “I’m surrounded by so many smart people that when I walk into a room, I try to keep quiet.” Hauk also described how she felt that it was surreal for her to be working in a place with so many talented people and was often surprised that she ended up where she is. 

Many of these women also spoke about their struggles in having a work life balance. Walker stated, “I was fortunate enough to have a husband who was willing to take off a lot of the ‘burden’ of children but it was still hard because I often wanted to see my children but was swamped with work.” 

During the panel, Bisharat gave very valuable advice to the students of AHS. She said, “be open to various things in high school. Experiment, and do not be too close minded to future career opportunities.”

Photo courtesy of AHS EDI